[SOLVED] Random Screen flicker after update

[speedsterharry]

Hi all,

For a recent project of mine, i had to install a recent kernel (Xbox ONE controller support), aka 3.17

The xbox One controller support was great but this upgrade introduced some instability in my system:

After each reboot/suspend/hibernate, my screen is not stable, as if an old lost sync to the signal ; I can see what's going on but the desktop is not usable at all.
As a workaround, instead of booting several times and hoping the screen won't flicker with the reboot, I run a program that takes over the whole screen (and changes resolution) : in my case the game Warzone2100. ALT-ENTER switched back and forth from windowed to fullscreen and after a few ALT-ENTER, I stumble upon a stable screen, after which I quit Warzone.

My kernel: 3.19.0-031900rc3-generic (problem occured in 3.17, 3.18, etc so i'm not sure the kernel is at fault)

lspci gives:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV530/M56-P [Mobility Radeon X1600]
02:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
02:06.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
02:06.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
02:06.3 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller
02:06.4 Communication controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 GemCore based SmartCard controller
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5753M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 21)
10:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11a/b/g (rev 01)

The latest Xorg/Xserver is installed

I searched these forums and the web for a possible cure but didn't find anything
Thanks for your help !

[speedsterharry]

To answer my own question: the problem is apparently present since kernel 3.16 and a work-around is to include "nomodeset" to the kernel boot parameters. I leave how to do this as an exercice for the reader
I also lost the top resolution for my laptop, but I can live with that....

[Trash]

Unfortunately this issue is not really SOLVED yet, but thanks for pointing out the workaround, which for me is NOT using the nomodeset because that will slow down the graphics massively.

The Warzone window switching (Alt-Enter) a couple of times seems to work awesome though.. having experienced the flickering also with the former LDME version it became much worse with Betsy. This was especially painful because with this release I now finally have hardware-acceleration (like direct rendering on steam). And I did notice Warzone did run very smooth and flicker-free fullscreen but leaving the program made the screen flickering immediately again. But now the Alt-Enter trick seems to solve that.

So again, thank you very much for sharing this!